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WLUML/allies

Just fourteen days after the National Assembly of Pakistan passed a Women's Protection Bill in order to provide relief and protection to women against the abuse of laws against premarital and extramarital sex, WLUML is deeply concerned to learn of another brutal "honour killing" case reported, from the Shikarpur district in the Sindh Province of Pakistan on 29 November 2006.

A 29-year-old divorcee in Bahrain has been receiving death threats and anonymous phone calls after being interviewed about her case on Al Hurra television on November 25th 2006. During the interview, mother-of-three Suad Mohammed Fathalla spoke alongside Women's Petition Committee head Ghada Jamsheer and Bahrain Center for Human Rights president Abdulhadi Al Khawaja.

Colleagues at Shirkat Gah, WLUML Asia regional coordination office have been monitoring the situation and have confirmed that they have made efforts to meet with staff from the university departments involved and that the female student is now reported missing. There has been no further news on the incident and despite letters being sent to the judiciary and the university authorities, this case does not have a positive outcome. However, many thanks to those of you who responded.

The Minister of Justice and spokesman for the Judiciary, Mr. Jamal Karimi-Rad, is the first Iranian judicial authority who has made official remarks in reaction to the Stop Stoning Forever campaign. In a press conference held on November 21, 2006, he denied that stoning is practiced as a punishment in Iran.

Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) is a term referring to women who individually or with others, act to promote and protect everyone’s human rights and any individual working specifically to promote women’s rights.

WLUML supports, and urges you to support, this campaign with the objective of changing the Islamic Penal Code of Iran so that stoning will never again be issued as a sentence or practiced as a punishment.

The Asia-Japan Women's Resource Center (AJWRC) has launched an international petition campaign for justice for Filipino rape victim by US military forces, since it is one of most serious human rights concerns in East Asia. They request our cooperation in responding to and disseminating this information widely.

We have received the following information from Iraqi friends who have initiated a campaign now that the constitutional committee has been formed. Their demands will be sent to the committee, to urge them to affirm the Personal Status Law and to remove Article 41 from the Iraqi constitution.

Human Rights advocates are shocked over the attempted rape of a female law student by staff of the Islamic Learning Department of Karachi University on 28 July 2006. They urge you to write to the Pakistani authorities to demand action for the arrest of the perpetrators and the filing of a criminal case.